OH, JUST STOP IT!

What do you think of SOLITARY CONFINEMENT? Throughout the United States of America there are thousands of human beings being held in SOLITARY CONFINEMENT. Some for 25-30 years. Most that are locked up in this way get to leave and go to an exercise yard for 1 hour a day. The term “yard” is a misnomer for they are most often just put into another cell with concrete walls and no natural light.

Now, Tubularsock feels that no matter how violent or dangerous or fucked up a human being happens to be he/she should NEVER-EVER be subjected to this type of treatment (torture, actually). It should be, in my mind, common sense ……… so why is it so pervasive in our prison system?

Remember the Germans? The questions of guilt for the death camps have plagued the psyche of an entire generation of Germans. Why didn’t they do something about it, they had to have known!

Well when Tubularsock was taking a road trip across Germany a few years back that question crossed my mind. For some reason it came up while driving thru the Black Forest area of Germany. There was something thought provoking about the Black Forest for me. It is a very peaceful and pleasant area and one almost forgets the outside world. And I guess that was the insight. If I had lived in this area of Germany I doubt if I’d have even thought about death camps or what was happening in them.

Much like here in the U.S. while you’re driving and even if you pass a prison complex seldom do you give it much thought. Maybe a fleeting comment like, “I sure am glad I’m not in there!”. And that’s about it, Best Western here I come.

But what if you actually knew what was really going on in “there”. Would that make a difference to you. But you may not want to know because knowing carries with it responsibility … funny how that works. If you feel like it’s none of your concern then you’ll be just like the Germans. But not exactly. The Germans of that period of the deaths camps could have been arrested and even killed if they had pursued questioning about what was going on.

You CAN know and SHOULD know because you are paying for it to exist and in the act of paying for it you are in part responsible for it and the treatment of other living human beings.

The amazing thing is that it doesn’t take that much of your time to say NO TO SOLITARY CONFINEMENT. And the more people that say NO, the louder it gets.

Now if you write the prison system once and say NO TO SOLITARY CONFINEMENT you may get a nice letter back saying ……….. well mostly standard bullshit really.

Same goes for your Congress person, the President and any other government agency you choose. The bullshit level is rather high and consistent.

And it tends to go like this: (you can skip this part if you have written to a governmental official any time in your life —— the bull shit is the same —— the perfect formula to say NOTHING.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thank you for contacting me regarding . . . I appreciate that you took the time to express your concerns about this important issue.

Thank you for writing to express your concerns about . . . Your correspondence is important to me, and I welcome the opportunity to respond.

As this debate moves forward, I pledge to continue to . . .

Please know that I will keep your thoughts and concerns in mind throughout this important process.

I will continue to listen closely to what you . . .

I agree that strong and decisive action is needed to . . .

I strongly share your belief that the United States must take meaningful action to prevent . . .

My job is not merely about supporting or opposing legislation, but also about bridging the divide that has paralyzed our nation’s politics.

Again, thank you for taking the time to write. Please know that I will keep your comments in mind as I work with my colleagues to address . . .

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Currently the prisoners in the California prison system are in the middle of a hunger strike to bring attention to overcrowding and solitary confinement.

Unfortunately your options to be heard still rests on letter writing and on protest to call attention to this and most injustice in our society. And Tubularsock urges you to do what you can but the system that is in control seems to proceed regardless of your thoughts and feelings.

THIS CAN BE CHANGED!

But it will require a radical shift from writing and protest to ECONOMIC DISRUPTIONS and ECONOMIC BOYCOTTS.

The reason why writing Congress or the President is futile is because these people are just the corporate servants NOT the public servants.

The American public are still under the impression that what they were taught in their 8th grade civics book (if at all) is the way our system still works. Well, Tubularsock is not going to get into the fact that our system of government NEVER worked like that. And it is not going to change now.

The only way real change will take place in this country is by INTERRUPTING THE FLOW OF PROFIT. And one of the good old day mechanisms for doing this was the MONKEY-WRENCH.

You recall the idea of tossing the MONKEY WRENCH into the gears of a factory so that the production line is put out of order for a period of time. Remember?

Well we don’t have that many factories any-longer but we, as a people, have a hell-of-a-collection of MONKEY WRENCHES.

Ok ……………. Keeping in mind that the possibilities are limitless. It takes organization but not necessarily large masses of people for a disruption but for a boycott we need numbers, to state the obvious.

The pressure points are increasing cost and diminishing profit. This calls for a variety of direct actions. That will depend on the corporate culture we are confronting.

Corporation spend a huge sum of money on public relations. You know, “Looking Good”.

BP, Chevron, Exxon Mobil are ALL environmentalists if you trust their image work. And some people believe that shit. But Tubularsock thinks that it is used more to convince their employees that they are working for a good cause rather than raising havoc on the earth. Because a disgruntled or disillusioned employee is a dangerous “commodity”.

So if the Prison-Industrial-Complex needs a change in their current direction they have to be induced to do that. If it COSTS them rather than PROFITS them that alone will determine their direction.

MONKEY WRENCHES in the “machinery” shifts the costs to loss ………..

There are a huge number of citizen organizers out there. Social media alone moves ideas to actions faster than ever.

What we need to do is harness the citizens anger and helplessness into targeting selected corporations to show the true POWER OF THE PEOPLE.

In truth it only has to be accomplished once or twice to show its effectiveness.

At that point the power structure will take notice.

The fun point is we don’t have to confront the police or military or even break the windows out of Bank of America. We just have to STOP buying selectively, or stop putting our money into banks selectively. Or dozens of other activities which withholds from the corporation or businesses that supply that corporation. The tighter the withhold the quicker the change.

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What you say is so true! I can write about it until my fingers turn numb, but unless I am willing to do more, the status quo continues.

Also, I have found it to be extremely difficult to get people to realize that we must take a stand. When I speak with groups of people, 98% of them have no idea what I am speaking about. They’ve never heard about it before I spoke of it. However, we can make a difference and many of us are doing just that, one little step at a time. Wherever there is oppression, there are some of us in that area. We need to organize, galvanize and energize people who have been apathetic and complacent for far too long. I just read that fast food workers in different areas of the country are simply walking off the job because they have had it with knowing that corporate executives are raking in billions in profits off of what amounts to poverty wages that the rank and file workers are making. I think that we will soon see that people, simply because things become just too untenable, are going to start doing whatever it takes.

I have written extensively on the problems with the Prison Industrial Complex. It is also run on a ‘for’ profit basis in many cases and many of the prisoners are in there on mandatory sentences for petty drug selling or use. We have been hell bent on incarcerating away our so called ‘war on drugs’ because convict labor is big business. The prison officials have long counted on the fact that the different ethnicities and gangs would never set aside their differences and make a united stand, apparently, in this case, the conditions warrant that that their differences be put aside for a common goal. Would that we all could do that.

Shelby thank you for taking the time to comment. I have had and have exactly the same experience you are speaking about when it comes to attempting to awaken people to the issues that are controlling all of us. It has been continually frustrating for me my entire life but I have always been driven to attempt to do it if for nothing more than my own psychological well being.

The apathetic and complacent attitudes that I’ve encounter are daunting and overwhelming. And every morning when I review the shear craziness of the world we live in I’m amazed that we still exist. And no matter what the odds are I am compelled to stand up against the dangers that I see.

It appears from your work that you are in much the same boat so I guess we are fellow travelers. Wouldn’t Joe McCarthy just love that!

[…] *The total indifference of our elected representatives to our prison system’s crimes against humanity is well illustrated by this post on solitary confinement (which also violates international law): Oh, Just Stop It […]